Palin: My whining is different than Hillary Clinton’s.
Palin: My whining is different than Hillary Clinton’s.
Since announcing that she would resign as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin (R) has been blaming her decision on the “mainstream media” and political operatives who accused her of “all sorts of frivolous ethics violations.” Ironically, Palin last year criticized Hillary Clinton for complaining about being put under “a sharper microscope,” saying that when there is “any kind of perceived whine” coming from a “woman candidate,” she thinks, “Man that doesn’t do us any good.” Time’s Jay Newton-Small asked Palin about this contradiction in a new interview. Palin replied that she’s totally different than Clinton because the accusations she’s facing are way worse:
What I said was, it doesn’t do her or anybody else any good to whine about the criticism. And that’s why I’m trying to make it clear that the criticism, I invite that. But freedom of speech and that invitation to constructively criticize a public servant is a lot different than the allowance to lie, to continually falsely accuse a public servant when they have proven over and over again that they have not done what the accuser is saying they did. It doesn’t cost them a dime to continue to accuse. That’s a whole different situation. But that’s why when I talk about the political potshots that I take or my family takes, we can handle that. I can handle that. I expect it. But there has to be opportunity provided for truth to get out there, and truth isn’t getting out there when the political game that’s being played right now is going to continue, and it is.
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Rep. Issa Posts RNC Video On Oversight Committee YouTube Channel In Violation Of House Rules
Rep. Issa Posts RNC Video On Oversight Committee YouTube Channel In Violation Of House Rules
Yesterday, the Republican National Committee awarded Matthias Shapiro the “first-ever” Grassroots Logic award for a YouTube video he made that purports to put the cost of health care reform in perspective. After the event, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, congratulated Shapiro on Twitter, writing, “Kudos again to [Shapiro] for receiving RNC award this AM for excellent grassroots web work.” Issa linked to a video of the award ceremony which had been posted on the official YouTube channel of the Republicans on the Oversight Committee, adding, “My staff made video”:
While the event itself was fairly unremarkable, it featured RNC chairman Michael Steele speaking behind a large RNC logo, clearly branding it as a political event. The use of the committee’s official YouTube channel to distribute political communications is a clear violation of House rules. As the House’s policy for use of web videos explains:
The official content of any material posted by the Member on any Web site must be in compliance with Federal law and House Rules and Regulations applicable to official communications and germane to the conduct of the Member’s official and representational duties.
More specifically, House rules stipulate that “materials (ie. photos, logos, or graphics) used in campaign literature” cannot be distributed using government resources.
Issa’s use of the committee YouTube channel to distribute a political video becomes almost laughable when considered in light of the fact that the jurisdiction of his committee includes investigating abuse of government resources. As the about section of the channel explains:
As the minority on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, we will work with our colleagues in the majority to exercise effective oversight over the federal government and will work proactively to investigate and expose waste, fraud, and abuse.
Perhaps Issa’s committee can begin by investigating themselves.
Arizona state senator argues for uranium mining by claiming the Earth is ‘6,000 years’ old.
Arizona state senator argues for uranium mining by claiming the Earth is ‘6,000 years’ old.
On June 25, the Arizona Senate’s Retirement and Rural Development Committee discussed the prospects for uranium mining in the state. During the hearing, State Senator Sylvia Allen (R), the vice chairman of the committee, argued in favor of mining by saying that the earth “has been here 6,000 years, long before anybody had environmental laws, and somehow it hasn’t been done away with.” “We need to get the uranium here in Arizona, so this state can get the money from it,” argued Allen. Watch it:
Phil Plait of BadAstronomy notes that the irony of Allen’s claim “is that she’s talking about uranium mining, and it’s through the radioactive decay of uranium that we know the Earth is billions of years old.”
O’Reilly Tells African-Americans Whom They Can And Cannot Hold Up As Icons
O’Reilly Tells African-Americans Whom They Can And Cannot Hold Up As Icons
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was full of his usual hypocrisy as he went off last night about the death of Michael Jackson. O’Reilly started off on a respectful note, saying, “The family of Michael Jackson honored his memory today in Los Angeles. And I do not, do not wish to intrude on that. They are entitled to grieve any way they want.” However, he then decided to intrude, saying that he was “just about fed up with all the adulation” because it’s “basically grandstanding and pathetic in the extreme.”
O’Reilly was also offended at the “racial component” to the Jackson coverage. “The message is very clear, if you criticize Michael Jackson, you hate black people,” said O’Reilly. He, however, then injected race into the discussion by telling Fox News analyst Marc Lamont Hill that blacks shouldn’t look up to Jackson:
O’REILLY: Okay, then why is he being held up by the African-American community as a pillar of black America when he blanches his skin? [...]
But answer me this, if he is such a black American icon, why did he have his kids with white men?
HILL: That’s a personal matter. That doesn’t make him less black. There’s no blackness meter here. You don’t become less black when you have a white kid.
O’REILLY: You don’t become an African-American icon when you do something like that.
HILL: No, you become an African-American icon for producing the greatest music and being the greatest entertainer ever for being extraordinary humanitarian and for.
O’REILLY: No. You just become an American icon for that, not a black American icon. [...]
HILL: It’s not — oh, he is an American idol — icon. He is quintessentially American, but he’s also undeniably black. You can’t take black from him just because he has white kids.
Watch it:
That’s right — O’Reilly, who has said he is “terrified” about interacting with African-Americans and is amazed that a restaurant “run by blacks” is like “any other restaurant in New York City,” is now dictating whom people of color should hold up as icons.
Inhofe defends calling Franken a ‘clown’: ‘He kind of looked like a clown when I was talking to him.’
Inhofe defends calling Franken a ‘clown’: ‘He kind of looked like a clown when I was talking to him.’
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) extended a nasty welcome to his newest Senate colleague, Al Franken, last week, telling the Tulsa World, “I’ll tell you what a lot of people are thinking, and that is it looks like things are going to be over and we are going to get the clown from Minnesota. … I don’t know the guy, but…for a living he is a clown.” Inhofe is now rushing to defend himself, pointing out that he and Franken “physically embraced” when they ran into each other on Tuesday. However, he still insists that Franken is a “clown”:
On Tuesday, Inhofe again insisted his comments last week were not meant to be derogatory.
He said the “clown comment” did come up during the chance meeting.
“But believe me, he knew. He kind of looked like a clown when I was talking to him,” Inhofe said.
Asked by Bill Press to respond to Inhofe last week, Franken simply replied, “I don’t know how Sen. Inhofe regards clowns, but it might be an incredible compliment.”
Palin’s resignation has ‘boosted her a bit among Republicans.’
Palin’s resignation has ‘boosted her a bit among Republicans.’
A new USA Today/Gallup poll has found that “Sarah Palin’s bombshell that she is resigning as Alaska governor actually has boosted her a bit among Republicans.” According to the poll, “two-thirds of Republicans want Palin…to be ‘a major national political figure‘ in the future” while three-quarters of Democrats “hope she won’t be.” Seventy-two percent of Republicans surveyed said they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to vote for her if she runs for president:
ThinkFast: July 8, 2009
ThinkFast: July 8, 2009
President Obama told CNN yesterday that the United States is “absolutely not” giving Israel a green light to attack Iran. “We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East,” said Obama, referring to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Shortly after being sworn-in yesterday, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced that the first bill he would sign onto as a co-sponsor would be the Employee Free Choice Act. “I just became a cosponsor of my first bill in the Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act,” Franken said last night.
The House Judiciary Committee deposed former Bush adviser Karl Rove yesterday, as part of the long-running U.S. attorney scandal probe. According to Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), Rove’s deposition “began at 10 a.m. and ended around 6:30 p.m, with several breaks,” although he refused to comment on what Rove said.
A new GAO report has found that “many states are using the federal [stimulus] funds for short-term projects and to fill budget gaps rather than spending on long-term improvements.” The report also says “many states aren’t meeting some goals and requirements of the economic recovery program” such as “using education funds to prevent layoffs rather than fund innovative new programs.”
In an interview with Esquire, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush criticizes Obama as a “collectivist.” He dismissed Obama’s health care reforms as useless. “We’re like gerbils running in place,” he said. As for Obama’s popularity, Bush said, “who cares?”
Emanuel assures House Democrats that he won’t compromise on public plan.
Emanuel assures House Democrats that he won’t compromise on public plan.
After initially indicating his support for a public plan “trigger,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel reassured House Democrats tonight that he strongly backs a public plan. Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) said she told Emanuel that support for a “trigger” would cause health reform to lose Democratic votes:
“We have compromised enough, and we are not going to compromise on any kind of trigger game,” Woolsey said she told Emanuel. “People clapped all over the place. We mean it, and not just progressives.”
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said Emanuel reassured him that he “doesn’t stand by that trigger.”
Reid to Baucus: Stop chasing Republican support for health care reform.
Reid to Baucus: Stop chasing Republican support for health care reform.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has “ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.” Roll Call reports:
According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn’t worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans. …
“This was discussed in the weekly Democratic leadership meeting,” one Democratic source confirmed Tuesday afternoon. “These concerns were relayed to [Baucus] later on.” … “The longer Baucus takes, the trickier it gets,” the senior Democratic Senate aide said.
If Baucus’s attempts to secure Republican support delay the process any further, the “planned merger” of the Finance Committee’s health reform proposal with that of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee could be “scrapped in favor of allowing each one to move to the floor on its own.” The lack of a public option is a deal-killer for some Democratic Senators because, as Igor Volsky explains, it is perhaps the most effective way to reduce the cost of health care, while ensuring affordable coverage for all.
DeMint on Honduran coup: It was ‘no more a coup than…Al Franken’s election to the Senate.’
DeMint on Honduran coup: It was ‘no more a coup than…Al Franken’s election to the Senate.’
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) today defended Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s recent removal from office by the Honduran military. In the course of defending the military coup, DeMint attacked President Obama for having what he called an “ad hoc and personalized foreign policy that seems less about supporting the rule of law than it is about supporting particular rulers.” Zelaya’s “removal from office was no more a coup than was Gerald Ford’s ascendence to the Oval Office or our newest colleague Al Franken’s election to the Senate,” DeMint claimed. Watch it:
DeMint seems to have missed the part where Franken was sworn in to office after a lengthy court battle that involved neither the “illegal military intervention” nor forced deportation. Further, despite Zelaya’s faults, his undemocratic removal from office has been roundly denounced by the international community and President Obama has said that the coup threatens to establish a “terrible precedent” for the future of Latin American democracy.
Sessions Uses Sotomayor Nomination To Continue His Lifelong Crusade Against Civil Rights
Sessions Uses Sotomayor Nomination To Continue His Lifelong Crusade Against Civil Rights
Conservatives have chosen a strange leader to spearhead their charge against Judge Sotomayor — Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). With only days remaining until Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings begin, Sessions has focused his attacks on Sotomayor’s past service on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), a leading civil rights organization that Sessions calls “extreme” because it “brought several race discrimination lawsuits for minorities” while Sotomayor sat on its board.
Setting aside the facial absurdity of this attack — race discrimination is illegal, a fact which apparently also bothers Sessions — it’s puzzling that conservatives would let Sessions be their public face of opposition against the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court, especially in light of his own checkered history with race.
In 1986, Sessions’ nomination to the federal bench was rejected by the Senate because of Sessions’ deep-seated hostility to the very notion of civil rights. In comments that are strikingly similar to his recent attacks on PRLDEF, Sessions attacked the NAACP as an “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” organization that “forced civil rights down the throats of people.” When confronted about these statements at his confirmation hearing, Sessions reluctantly conceded that they “probably w[ere] wrong.” Watch:
Nor were Sessions’ attacks on the NAACP an isolated incident. As a federal prosecutor, Sessions conducted a tenuous criminal investigation into voting rights advocates that registered African-Americans to vote, an investigation that culminated in an unsuccessful prosecution against a former aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Additionally, an African-American attorney who once worked for Sessions testified at his hearings that Sessions said that he “used to think [the KKK] were OK” until he found out some of them were “pot smokers.” The same attorney also recalled being called “boy” by Sessions and being told to “be careful what you say to white folks” after Sessions overheard him chastising a white secretary.
So Sessions’ attacks on PRLDEF fit into a much larger pattern; they are just the most recent phase of Sessions’ crusade against civil rights and the organizations that promote them. America has changed a lot since 1986, but Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III remains exactly the same.
FreedomWorks blogger inadvertently accuses Dick Armey of ‘smiley-faced fascism.’
FreedomWorks blogger inadvertently accuses Dick Armey of ‘smiley-faced fascism.’
On July 4th, FreedomWorks blogger Rossputin posted an essay called, “Happy Dependence Day,” in which he accused employees of GM, AIG, Citigroup, the Department of Education and lobbyists of being “the antithesis of this nation’s founding, the antidote to liberty and free markets, the source of the smiley-faced fascism which creeps further into our lives daily.” But as Chris Harris of Media Matters Action points out, by attacking lobbyists, Rossputin was inadvertently attacking the chairman of FreedomWorks, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who is currently a lobbyist with the high-powered D.C. lobbying firm DLA Piper. Read a list of Armey’s lobbying clients here.
Alberto Gonzales lands a teaching position at Texas Tech.
Alberto Gonzales lands a teaching position at Texas Tech.
Life has been tough for Alberto Gonzales since he stepped down as President Bush’s attorney general. He was, for a while, “unable to interest law firms in adding his name to their roster.” Gonzales blamed his bad luck on the “rough economy.” Last June he was finally able to get hired “to provide assistance to a special master on a patent case.” The Austin-American Statesman now reports that Gonzales has also “lined up a fall-semester teaching spot at Texas Tech University.” He will be working in the political science department on a “’special topics’ course on contemporary issues in the executive branch.” (HT: Wonkette)
Ohio Department of Transportation ‘Disappointed’ In Boehner’s Cluelessness About Stimulus Funds
Ohio Department of Transportation ‘Disappointed’ In Boehner’s Cluelessness About Stimulus Funds
This past Sunday on Fox News, House Minority Leader John Boehner issued this stinging, but false, criticism of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
BOEHNER: This was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, and jobs. And the fact is it turned into nothing more than spending, spending, and more spending on a lot of big government bureaucracy. In Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago — there hasn’t been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is is that I don’t believe it will create jobs.
Watch it:
Media Matters fact-checked Boehner’s statement, noting that the Ohio Department of Transportation had been using stimulus funds “for work on 52 projects.” On June 15, the ODOT issued a statement noting that the stimulus funds were helping to create jobs. “As contracts are awarded, construction companies begin to mobilize workers for these jobs,” the statement read.
Today, ODOT issued a new statement distancing itself from Boehner. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports:
ODOT spokesman Scott Varner called Boehner’s statement “disappointing.”
Varner noted that ODOT had just OK’d six more stimulus road projects, which will cost about $43 million.
Boehner’s office was forced to backpedal in the face of new criticism from ODOT. After initially claiming that not a single contract had resulted from the stimulus funds, Boehner issued a revised statement, complaining that “the entire process has been absurdly slow moving just as Republicans warned.”
Just last month, Boehner was touting the fact that stimulus was creating “much-needed jobs” for his state. Boehner just can’t keep his talking points straight in his feverish rush to issue political attacks against Obama.
Franken takes the oath.
Franken takes the oath.
Al Franken officially became the junior senator from Minnesota earlier today when he took the oath of office, administered to him by Vice President Joseph Biden. After Franken completed the oath, “the gallery erupted in an unusual and lengthy applause that continued for several minutes,” according to the AP. Watch it:
Whitehouse: Climate deniers are taken seriously only at ExxonMobil and in the Senate.
Whitehouse: Climate deniers are taken seriously only at ExxonMobil and in the Senate.
In the first Senate hearing today on clean energy legislation supported by President Barack Obama, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) compared the Senate to the “ExxonMobil board room.” Whitehouse expressed his concern that the United States would be left behind in the clean energy race, saying, “I do not want to see American industries at the back of that parade with a broom.” Addressing the Obama Cabinet members before him — Ken Salazar, Stephen Chu, Tom Vilsack, and Lisa Jackson — Whitehouse apologized for the denial of man-made climate change by his fellow senators:
We know that this is probably — along with the ExxonMobil board room — the last place that sober people debate whether or not these problems are real, but we intend to work with you anyway, and we hope to give you strong legislative support if we can.
Watch it:
ExxonMobil, the world’s largest company, is still directing money to climate-denial front groups, and has spent more than $9.3 million lobbying Congress this year alone. Sen. Whitehouse has previously noted the insidious influence of polluter spending on the Senate’s willingness to take the threat of climate change seriously.
Kyl: Obama Wants To ‘Make A Deal’ With Russia More Than He Wants To ‘Ensure The Protection’ Of The U.S.
Kyl: Obama Wants To ‘Make A Deal’ With Russia More Than He Wants To ‘Ensure The Protection’ Of The U.S.
Yesterday, President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed an agreement to negotiate a successor to the soon-to-expire START treaty that would “cut American and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals by at least one-quarter.” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) — “seasoned killer of past arms control treaties” — responded to news of the agreement on Bill Bennett’s radio show this morning by claiming that the Obama administration is “more anxious to make a deal than it is to ensure the protection of the United States.” Bennett told Kyl that he “didn’t think the reductions in missiles by the amount they were doing it was that serious,” but asked him to elaborate:
KYL: In the past, our assessment of what we need to protect our interests as well as the allies that rely on our nuclear umbrella put the number of weapons as a certain level. And the administration is planning to go far below that. … I’m very concerned that the administration is more anxious to make a deal than it is to ensure the protection of the United States.
Kyl’s remarks today demonstrate further that Obama’s right-wing critics are more interested in accusing the President of not wanting to protect the nation than they are in offering substantive critiques of his policy proposals. Last week, Kyl made similar arguments alongside Iraq war architect Richard Perle in the Wall Street Journal. The two wrote that Obama’s widely-praised plans to work toward the elimination of all nuclear weapons were “dangerous, wishful thinking.”
On the specifics of the agreement Obama reached yesterday, Kyl appears to be nearly alone in objecting to it. Even the traditionally-partisan Newt Gingrich endorsed the goals that Obama laid out in a speech yesterday in Moscow. “There is much in it to support,” Gingrich wrote on Twitter. And despite Kyl’s attempts to portray Obama’s commitment yesterday to eliminate just a portion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal as detrimental to U.S. national security, James Collins and Jack Matlock remind us that former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev “came within a hair’s breadth of agreeing to the complete elimination of nuclear weapons within 10 years” during their 1986 summit.
Cincinnati Enquirer Columnist Issues A Non-Apology For Using Doctored Franken Photo, Deletes Original Post
Cincinnati Enquirer Columnist Issues A Non-Apology For Using Doctored Franken Photo, Deletes Original Post
On July 1, Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Peter Bronson wrote a column titled, “Minnesota — the joke is on you,” in which he wondered whether Al Franken will “embarrass his party and become a kick-me sign on the back of Democrats at election time.” To make his point, he posted this image:
A little googling would have shown Bronson that the image is fake. As ThinkProgress first reported in 2006, the Ohio Republican Party photoshopped an AP image:
Bronson’s original post has since disappeared. Although the Cincinnati Beacon — and then some of Bronson’s own commenters — pointed out that the image wasn’t real, Bronson didn’t seem to care. Yesterday, Bronson went into his comments section and was unapologetic in using the fake image:
Yes, the photo of Franken in a diaper was apparently altered. But it’s not exacly [sic] a big reach to believe it could have come from one of his SNL skits. It resonates because people find it easy to see Franken that way.
Bronson finally posted a “non-apology” yesterday afternoon, writing, “Franken did many things on Saturday Night Live that could be embarrassing to a Senator. But apparently, that was not one of them. It turns out the picture was photoshopped.” He also claimed that he doesn’t “knowingly run false pictures,” and instead posted a different “goofy” picture of Franken.
No word yet on why Bronson’s original post was deleted. (His post from yesterday notes that the link no longer works but he’s “not sure why.”) Ironically, as the MinnPost points out, Bronson’s column is called, “Bronson is Always Right.”
Palin thinks there is a ‘Department of Law’ at the White House. (There isn’t.)
Palin thinks there is a ‘Department of Law’ at the White House. (There isn’t.)
In a new interview with ABC News, Sarah Palin left the door open to running for national political office in the future. She said that the “frivolous ethics violations” that plagued her during her time in Alaska wouldn’t be as much as a problem if she were in the White House because of the all-powerful “Department of Law” that the President has at his disposal:
I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out.
For the record, no such agency exists at the national level. The state of Alaska does have a Department of Law, but it apparently wasn’t able to keep Palin safe from “some of the things [she's] been charged with.”
Rahm Emanuel Signals White House Is Willing To Compromise On Public Plan
Rahm Emanuel Signals White House Is Willing To Compromise On Public Plan
In his efforts to fashion a bipartisan compromise on health reform, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) has been trying to find alternatives to a robust public plan, which many Republicans refuse to consider. One of Baucus’s ideas has been to institute a public plan “trigger.” Under this proposal, the public plan would be created only if private insurance companies don’t make “meaningful, affordable coverage available to all Americans” within a certain period of time.
The Wall Street Journal reports that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is now lending Baucus his support for the public plan “trigger”:
Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama’s goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public option has never gone into effect. […]
On Monday, Mr. Emanuel said the trigger mechanism would also accomplish the White House’s goals. Under this scenario, a public plan would kick in under certain circumstances when competition was judged to be lacking. Exactly what circumstances would trigger the option would have to be worked out.
The concept of a public plan “trigger” seems to be driven by a desire to protect the private insurance industry. As The Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky writes, “Why shouldn’t we require private industry to deliver on their promise to contain costs? Health reform isn’t about protecting private industry; it’s about adopting policies that are most likely to lower health care costs.” And as former Sen. Tom Daschle said, “I can’t think of a tool that more effectively controls costs than a public option.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has been pushing the Senate Finance Committee to adopt a public plan, said a “trigger” is unacceptable. On Face the Nation this past Sunday, he said a public plan “has to be available on the first day to everybody…so there shouldn’t be a trigger.”
I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest. I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals.
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